Stress
by Sky's Breaker
Summary: Luma can't sleep; her family has caused her so much stress that she actually breaks, but luckily, it's at night. However, Smokescreen walks in when she's crying. This is just really a practice story, but if you like it, good for you. This is probably a set up for a more in depth story with Luma as the star; literally.


AN: So, the only real reason I haven't been heard from since who knows when is because of stress. Most people would say, oh, we understand, but when you get down to it; you don't know. So, I'm trying the only really effective stress relief that I can find; writing. So, I apologise beforehand if this writing piece is a piece of poop.

-:-

It was night time at the Autobot base, and though most of it's inhabitants were resting, there was one particular one who was not. She was no Autobot, just a regular, ordinary human, in need of some alone time. Her name is Luma, and she was currently sitting on her makeshift bed, the couch, curled up into a ball with the blanket in her arms, and was crying.

Her mind kept on saying that she shouldn't be crying; she knew giant extraterrestrial robot-like creatures, the good ones, and was staying at the super secret military base. That was probably one of the few things that she considered a high point.

Why was she crying in the first place, even? Her parents, while divorced, were able to talk and laugh together. She had three younger brothers, one of them was a half brother, that she loved and adored. And the man her mom had met a few years back was really quite amazing, given through everything he himself had been going through.

And yet, she cried. Because, while all of it sounded amazingly nice, and low stress… It was far from the truth. Her father had an unknown disease that caused him constant pain in his stomach and chest. He had taken tests, undergone operations, and yet, nothing changed, or was discovered. He was taking morphine, along with other numerous medicines, each day just to be able to do the most simplest things.

Her oldest younger brother, who was two years younger, had developed diabetes type one at the age of six, and, now sixteen, had been in Emerg about six times in the span of a month and a half.

Her youngest, and half, brother, who was five, was bothersome nearly all the time. While he had been taught the proper manners by his mother, who had been Luma's step mom for nearly seven years, he was a spoiled brat in certain cases.

Her other younger brother, who was thirteen at the time, was very similar to Luma in a lot of ways. And the one way they were alike, and it was obvious in, was dealing with stress. Both stress about everyone and everything, unintentionally, and it weighs them down immensely. Sleeping patterns were out of wack, eating habits weren't much better for the two of them.

And being the oldest, Luma felt that he had to help everyone and anyone. It didn't matter what the personal cost was to her, she would help. Be it only getting three hours of sleep because her brother was stressing, and woke up in a panic, or get no sleep at all, just to ensure her dad didn't accidentally fall asleep while standing up at three in the morning, therefore causing him to fall.

Being the oldest did have it's advantages, like pulling rank on stupid things, but it also came with the feeling that everyone came before oneself.

Luma sat there for what seemed like hours, but the clock on the table in front of her told her that only a mere twenty minutes had passed. She cried rather quietly, but would sometimes let out a louder wail, in hopes that maybe someone would hear her.

While she would hate to wake them with the selfish reason of just being with someone, a tiny part of her feared being alone. That was her ultimate fear; being completely alone. And, while she was sure Bumblebee wouldn't mind being woken up by her, the others might not be so welcoming.

The others just didn't fit right, except for perhaps Optimus. But then again, he was a Prime; he fit a lot of roles. Smokescreen seemed too young, even for Luma. Arcee and Ratchet would seem to be the grumpy ones of the bunch; it wasn't that hard to guess. And Bulkhead… Well, he was Bulkhead.

Sniffing to herself and making a few smaller noises, Luma began to wish she hadn't taken up the offer of escaping there for the night. Now her mind was filled with worry about her brothers and her father; something she wanted to avoid, but she herself wouldn't allow that.

Holding the blanket tighter, she stiffened as she heard the heavy footfalls of one of the Autobots in the hallway. Her body froze as she became quiet, trying to figure out who it was.

"Hello? Anyone there?" a familiar voice said from the hallway, and Luma was surprised to see Smokescreen standing there. Luma sniffled one more time, alerting the young bot that she was awake. "So, that was the noise I kept on hearing," he said before walking over to the platform that had the couch on it. The human was obviously distressed; her cheeks were wet with tears, eyes puffy and from the sound of it, Luma had trouble breathing.

Smokescreen stood behind the couch and gently nudged Luma with a digit. "Hey, what's the matter?"

Luma looked at Smokescreen with her puffy eyes, and began to tell him her list of everything that worried her, or that was a major stressor. Smokescreen noticed that as she kept on talking, her breathing patterns became slightly more regular, and she had relaxed slightly.

It was at that moment that Smokescreen realized that, while incredibly small, this human carried more weight on her shoulders than he ever had. Back on Cybertron, he had heard of these types of situations maybe once or twice, ever. The most common stories were of lost ones because of the war, not things like this.

He kept on listening, and eventually, when she began the tale of when she had a step mother, he picked her up in his hand and just held her there. After a while, she seemed calm enough to make a fairly rational decision, so he proposed the idea of going for a drive.

Luma was all over the idea, and not two minutes later, she sat in the passengers seat in Smokescreen, still holding tight onto the blanket. "Alright, let's go," the racing car said, and quietly drove out of the base.

-:-

It was around ten in the morning when Smokescreen and Luma returned to base, much to Ratchet's annoyance. "And where were you two this morning?" the medic asked.

"We, uh, got to know each other better," Smokescreen said, and Luma simply nodded, still in her PJ's.

-:-

AN: So, Luma is a new character of mine that I will most likely be writing more about. She has an amazing future laid out in my mind. Now, if you can beat those things mentioned above with stress levels, I feel for you. I may or may not be going through those, and a lot of other things… so yeah. Please review, or fave, or even follow even though this is a one shot.


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